William Gooderham Sr. (August 29, 1790 – August 20, 1881) was a British-born
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
distiller, businessman, and banker. He was a founder of the
Gooderham and Worts
Gooderham and Worts, also known as Gooderham & Worts Limited, was a Canadian distiller of alcoholic beverages. It was once one of the largest distillers in Canada. The company was merged in 1926 with Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd., and the merged firm ...
distillery.
Life and career
Born in
Scole
Scole () is a village on the Norfolk–Suffolk border in England. It is 19 miles south of Norwich and lay on the old Roman road to Venta Icenorum, which was the main road until it was bypassed with a dual carriageway. It covers an area of and ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, England, the son of James and Sarah Gooderham, he immigrated to
York, Upper Canada
York was a town and the second capital of the colony of Upper Canada. It is the predecessor to the Old Toronto, old city of Toronto (1834–1998). It was established in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe as a "temporary" location fo ...
(now
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
) in 1832 to invest and partner in a wind-powered flour mill with his brother-in-law, James Worts. Briefly operating as Worts and Gooderham until Worts' death in 1834, Gooderham continued to operate the mill as the William Gooderham Company.
In 1837, he added a distillery to make efficient use of surplus and second-grade grain. Having taken Worts' son, James Gooderham Worts, under his guidance since Worts' death, they became partners in 1845 and renamed the company as Gooderham and Worts.
Expanding their business, they introduced gas for illumination, expanded the use of steam power in the plants and built their own wharf to ship their consignments. By the 1860s, they owned schooners on the Great Lakes. During the 1860s and 1870s, Gooderham was a community and business leader in the Toronto industrial landscape and in transportation and financial services, as well as on the stock exchange, and in the council and the board of arbitration of the
Toronto Board of Trade
The Toronto Region Board of Trade is the principal local business community organization in the City of Toronto. It is the largest Chamber of Commerce/board of trade in Canada and one of the largest in North America. Its primary contemporary focus ...
.
In the summer of 1842, he participated with Bishop
John Strachan
John Strachan (; 12 April 1778 – 1 November 1867) was a notable figure in Upper Canada, an "elite member" of the Family Compact, and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. He is best known as a political bishop who held many government posit ...
in the founding meeting of
Little Trinity Anglican Church
Little Trinity Anglican Church (officially Trinity East) is a parish church of the Anglican Church of Canada. It is located at 425 King Street East in the Corktown neighbourhood, just east of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. An Ontario Heritag ...
, where he later was a warden for 30 years. A marble memorial for Gooderham is mounted on the west wall inside the church.
In 1864, he was appointed president of the
Bank of Toronto
The Bank of Toronto was a Canadian bank that was founded in 1855 by a group of grain dealers and flour millers. On February 1, 1955, it merged with the Dominion Bank to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Its first president was James Grant Chewett, ...
.
Descendants
His son George Gooderham (1830–1905) was a businessman and philanthropist, his grandson
George Horace Gooderham
George Horace Gooderham (April 18, 1868 – December 22, 1942) was a Canadians, Canadian businessman and politician. From 1908 to 1919, he was a Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Conservative member in the Legislative Assembly of Ontar ...
was a businessman and politician, and another grandson,
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
, would serve as the
U.S. Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State.
The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
. Eldest son William George Gooderham (1853-1935) was also a businessman and operating Mineral Springs Limited (later York Springs Bottling and Okeefe Springs) in Hoggs Hollow near his 1907 home on Yonge Street. He was also the president of the Bank of Toronto until his death.
In 1870, his son Charles Horace Gooderham (1844–1904) built a residence in Meadowvale (now part of Mississauga) – a
Georgian Revival
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...
manor at 929 Old Derry Road. It was sold in 1884 and is now the Rotherglen School's Meadowvale Elementary Campus, a private Montessori school.
Charles Horace Gooderham also built a Queen Anne Revival mansion in Toronto at 592 Sherbourne Street in 1883, which became the Selby Hotel in 1912.The Selby – 592 Sherbourne Street /ref> The historic building was moved a short distance on its site in 2015 in order to incorporate it into a new apartment complex calle The Selby
Northern Railway of Canada
The Northern Railway of Canada was a railway in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, Canada. It was the first Steam locomotive, steam railway to enter service in what was then known as Upper Canada. It was eventually ac ...
*
Toronto and Nipissing Railway
The Toronto and Nipissing Railway (T&N) was the first public narrow-gauge railway in North America. It chartered in 1868 to build from Toronto to Lake Nipissing in Ontario, Canada, via York, Ontario, and Victoria counties. At Nipissing it would me ...
*
Toronto Harbour Commission
The Toronto Harbour Commission (THC) was a joint federal-municipal government agency based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The agency managed Toronto Harbour as well as being responsible for major works along the Toronto waterfront. It built both ...